I continue to have an unbelievable summer (thank you all for putting up with my lack of reviewing and commenting, what a bad friend!) but I was inspired by Ingress77’s return to CBR stats (congrats on the baby!) and decided to take advantage of my husband being out of the country for the week to work through 20+ book backlog. I’m going to review five at a time to avoid spamming the website over the next few days and figured I’d start with my first round of Bingo eligible reviews!
CBR 11 Bingo: And So it Begins…
The Magician’s Nephew and (/or) The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (depending on your belief in the proper reading order) by CS Lewis
“For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.”
I’d considered using one of these for “Youths!” but decided to combine these two into “And So it Begins” since there are two camps when it comes to the order Narnia books should be read. While Magician’s Nephew is the last book CS Lewis wrote it is a prequel to the rest of the series and the events predate the first novel written, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, by several decades.
Polly and Digory are sent to another world by Digory’s uncle, who fancies himself a magician, when he tricks Polly into touching his ring. They are transported to a multiverse type woods and they decide to explore a little before returning home. They end up in the desolate city of Charn where they run into an evil sorceress Jadis. The children escape from Jadis but the evil witch follows them back to England where she enslaves the magician and sets about taking over Earth as she did with Charn.
Polly and Digory manage to get the rings to transport Jadis, the magician and a nearby cabdriver out of London into a new world Aslan the Lion has created. Digory atones for his sin of bringing Jadis to London and is rewarded by Aslan with a magical apple tree. The tree is eventually cut down and turned into a wardrobe.
“She stayed behind because she thought it would be worthwhile trying the door of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure that it would be locked. To her surprise it opened quite easily….”
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is one of the my favorite children’s books because it is younger skewing without being too cutesy- it is very heavy on the religious symbolism but don’t let that dissuade you from a fun, fantastical read. It is also the only Narnia book I’d read before this summer (other reviews are forthcoming) so it was a fun reread.
Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are four English children who are displaced during WWII. They’re sent to an old professor’s house where one day Lucy discover’s a magical wardrobe that leads to a wintery wonderland. Although her brothers and sister don’t believe her story of the magical forest and the faun she had tea with her brother Edmund soon finds himself transported to Narnia as well. He runs into the White Witch, Jadis from the Magician’s Nephew, and is convinced to bring his siblings into Narnia.
Back in Narnia Lucy discovers Mr Tumnus’ house has been ransacked and his is missing; the Pevensie children meet the Beavers who tell them all about the evil witch as well as a prophecy about two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve who could bring her rule to an end. The Beavers also tell the children about the one true King, slash Jesus Lion, Aslan whose return is imminent. Edmund, who is a little shit, runs back to the White Witch and tells her all about Aslan’s return.
I would say spoiler alert here but if you don’t know the story by now you’re probably never going to read the book so…
The Witch has decided to kill Edmund but Aslan, who has returned and brought Spring with him, trades his own life for Edmund’s because Jesus.
Lucy and Susan stay with Aslan’s body overnight crying but the next morning Aslan has come back to life, because Jesus, but also because the ancient magical rule which revives someone who willingly gives their life for a traitor. The Narnian’s battle with the Witch and prevail; then Aslan kills the witch and crowns the children kings and queens of Narnia.
“Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia.”
CBR 11 Bingo: Rainbow Flag
Too Much is Not Enough by Andrew Rannells
I first encountered Andrew Rannells as the gay best friend to Lena Dunham’s insufferable Hannah on Girls but I think he is best known for his Tony nominated role in The Book of Mormon. His fantastic memoir, Too Much is Not Enough, doesn’t focus on his success and fame but instead on the years leading to opening night of his Broadway debut as a featured extra in Hairspray. There are several advantages to the way Rannell’s chose to write his life’s story, namely that he can easily write a sequel, but most importantly it is an honest look at breaking into the theater world.
After a happy childhood in Nebraska that involved community and dinner theater roles Andrew made his way to New York as a college freshman studying theater at Marymount College. Unfortunately Andrew was never the best student and he eventually dropped out to audition full time. He survived on several small theater jobs before landing the lucrative payday as the flamboyant James in Pokemon Live! While he was not happy during his run in Pokemon he landed the lead in an Austin production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch which satisfied him creatively but unfortunately didn’t lead to any bigger roles. Andrew’s Broadway debut didn’t happen until he was 26 years old, which is crazy to me because he didn’t look a day over 24 in Girls, and it came at a big cost- namely his boyfriend who was up for the same role- but he comes across as appreciative for all his time spent struggling to make it.
Too Much is Not Enough is the perfect balance between humor and heart and Rannell’s is a wonderfully open writer who shares the good and bad with his audience.
CBR11 Bingo: History/Schmistory
The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard
I read The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II about five years ago and enjoyed the story of the women in Oak Ridge who played integral roles, despite their lack of information, in the creation of the atomic bomb. The Atomic City Girls is set in the same Tennessee town that created the materials needed for the Manhattan Project to work. Unlike the nonfiction Girls of Atomic City, Atomic City Girls focuses on the fictional June Walker, an eighteen year old girl whose fiance was killed on the front lines, and her roommate Cici who hopes to land a rich husband before the war ends.
“What you see here, what you hear here, what you do here, let it stay here.”
June finds herself smitten by her older boss, Sam, a physicist whose loose lips let slip what the secret city is really doing in the middle of nowhere. I think a lot of people are aware of the Manhattan Project but the men and women at Oak Ridge were integral parts of creating the A-bomb which, regardless on your feelings about the humanitarian ramifications, was one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 20th century. The Atomic City Girls has a healthy dose of romance and fictional story lines mixed in with interesting historical facts about one of the lesser known parts of WWII.
CBR11 Bingo: Far And Away
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Malawi is an African country that most people have heard of because Madonna adopted a couple children from there a few years ago. The Boy Who Harness the Wind is the story of William Kamkwamba whose life was forever changed when drought and mismanagement by a corrupt government lead to country wide famine. William’s family, farmers who were unable to even put food on the table, was no longer able to afford the tuition to his private school and he was forced to drop out. When he wasn’t busy foraging for food William, as starved for knowledge as he was for food, began going to the library where he learned about windmills in a book called Using Energy.
“The pictures in the library book had provided the idea, hunger and darkness had given me the inspiration, and I’d set out myself on this long, amazing journey.”
Eventually the primary school dropout taught himself how to create a windmill using a dynamo engine and rudimentary tools. With this he was eventually able to provide energy and running water for his family. His crude but effective windmill caught the attention of the newspaper which eventually led him to TEDGlobal in Tanzania. He continues to work with windpower and bettering the lives of the people of Africa.
While William’s story is ultimately an uplifting story it is a difficult read at times. People were literally starving to death in 2002 and I most definitely skipped the part about him putting his starving dog out of its misery.
